tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24138435900739575202017-12-01T15:37:49.518-08:00Proinnsias Ó Cillín (Krunchie Killeen)Krunchie Killeen's Opinions and ObservationsProinnsias Ó Cillínnoreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413843590073957520.post-74494887576883518282017-12-01T15:37:00.002-08:002017-12-01T15:37:49.526-08:00Naturall Law: Hopi Indian<br /><br /><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NpREcBGOaBg" frameborder="0" gesture="media" allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>Proinnsias Ó Cillínhttps://plus.google.com/107863319744542695298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413843590073957520.post-28306759634877954952017-05-28T15:57:00.001-07:002017-05-28T16:04:43.660-07:00My books on AmazonMy two new books are now available in paperback and kindle versions from &nbsp;Amazon, viz.,<br /><br /><br /><ul><li>Simplified Land Titling: Simple, low-cost protection of all land rights, and</li><li>Transport 21 Hundred: A transport system to replace Buses, Trains and Airplanes by 2100.</li></ul><br /><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><ul style="line-height: 1.4; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding: 0px 2.5em;"><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_rsis_1_0?url=search-alias%3Daps&amp;field-keywords=krunchie+killeen&amp;sprefix=%2Caps%2C215" style="color: #888888; text-decoration-line: none;">Amazon.co.uk</a></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.amazon.in/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/262-7966114-3755220?url=search-alias%3Daps&amp;field-keywords=krunchie+killeen" style="color: #888888; text-decoration-line: none;">Amazon.in</a>&nbsp;</li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&amp;field-keywords=krunchie+killeen" style="color: #888888; text-decoration-line: none;">Amazon.com</a></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.amazon.de/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/262-9325610-4760141?__mk_de_DE=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&amp;url=search-alias%3Daps&amp;field-keywords=krunchie+killeen" style="color: #888888; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Amazon.de</a></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.amazon.fr/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/257-4653369-8320459?__mk_fr_FR=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&amp;url=search-alias%3Daps&amp;field-keywords=krunchie+killeen" style="color: #888888; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Amazon.fr</a></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.amazon.es/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/257-3061910-5295524?__mk_es_ES=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&amp;url=search-alias%3Daps&amp;field-keywords=krunchie+killeen" style="color: #888888; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Amazon.es</a></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.amazon.it/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/261-0166425-1180954?__mk_it_IT=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&amp;url=search-alias%3Daps&amp;field-keywords=krunchie+killeen" style="color: #888888; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Amazon.it</a></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.amazon.nl/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/259-2905390-9907961?__mk_nl_NL=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&amp;url=search-alias%3Daps&amp;field-keywords=krunchie+killeen" style="color: #888888; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Amazon.nl</a></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.jp/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/355-0884049-0885429?__mk_ja_JP=%E3%82%AB%E3%82%BF%E3%82%AB%E3%83%8A&amp;url=search-alias%3Daps&amp;field-keywords=krunchie+killeen" style="color: #888888; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Amazon.co.jp</a></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/134-7797214-8248231?url=search-alias%3Daps&amp;field-keywords=krunchie+killeen" style="color: #888888; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Amazon.ca</a></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com.br/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/135-4732811-9050967?__mk_pt_BR=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&amp;url=search-alias%3Daps&amp;field-keywords=krunchie+killeen" style="color: #888888; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Amazon.com.br</a></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com.mx/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/141-9115711-6766956?__mk_es_MX=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&amp;url=search-alias%3Daps&amp;field-keywords=krunchie+killeen" style="color: #888888; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Amazon.com.mx</a></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com.au/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/357-6202650-8155323?url=search-alias%3Daps&amp;field-keywords=krunchie+killeen" style="color: #888888; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Amazon.com.au</a></li></ul></div>Proinnsias Ó Cillínhttps://plus.google.com/107863319744542695298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413843590073957520.post-64615907375311899522017-03-18T09:54:00.003-07:002017-03-18T16:35:37.347-07:00Saint Patrick as WhistleblowerSaint Patrick was no literateur and wrote very little. His two surviving manuscripts both arise out of his whistleblowing against corrupt Roman/ English general, Coroticus.<br /><br />Patrick had converted the people of Antrim, who, thereupon turned away from violent ways, when Coroticus attacked the new Christian community, slaughtered many and took others, - young women, - as slaves, to sell to the Picts of Scotland.<br /><br />Patrick wrote an epistle to the English Church denouncing this act of piracy and demanding that the young women be returned out of slavery.<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">... Therefore these words I, with my proper hand,<br />Have framed and written, for delivery<br />To these the soldiers' of Coroticus ;<br /><strong>[20] </strong>I say not, to my fellow-citizens,<br />Nor fellow-citizens of pious Romans,<br />But rather fellow-citizens of Fiends,<br />Because of their ill deeds, who, barbarously,<br />In manner full of hatred, live in death,<br /><strong>[25] </strong>Companions of the Scots and Picts apostate,<br />Intent to glut their savage souls in blood<br />Of innocents unnumbered, by myself<br />In God begotten and in Christ confirmed ... .</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">...&nbsp;&nbsp;Wherefore, beseech you, all that holy are,<br />And all of humble heart, that with such men<br />Ye hold no flattering converse. You, with them,<br />Eat not nor drink ; nor of them take their alms,<br />Until with rigorous penance, and with tears<br /><strong>[70] </strong>Effused, they make atonement, and set free<br />These new-baptized handmaidens of Christ,<br />For whom He died and suffered on the cross. ...</blockquote>(<a href="http://therefore%20these%20words%20i%2c%20with%20my%20proper%20hand%2c/" target="_blank">From the translation of Sir Samuel Ferguson</a>)<br /><br />&nbsp;Coroticus was a powerful man, a benefactor of the English Church, with many friends in high places. His response to Patrick's attack was as the powerful&nbsp;corrupt always respond, - to launch a vitriolic campaign against the whistleblower's character. He accused Patrick of going native, as becoming as pagan and savage as the Irish themselves, and, indeed, as having attended sun-worshipping ceremonies in his youth. As a consequence charges were formally brought against Patrick and he had to attend before a Synod of bishops in London to answer the charges.<br /><br />His second, and most famous manuscript, <a href="http://www.confessio.ie/etexts/confessio_english#01" target="_blank">The Confessions of Saint Patrick</a>, was his defence to these charges.<br /><br />The good bishops of the church and civil authorities in England&nbsp;concerned themselves not with bringing the piratic mass-murderor and slave-trader to justice, but with holding a tribunal into the political correctness of Patrick's ministry.<br /><br />Proinnsias Ó Cillínhttps://plus.google.com/107863319744542695298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413843590073957520.post-6660978935728532622017-02-24T08:06:00.001-08:002017-02-24T15:48:09.271-08:00Shanty-town Slums for Dublin?Could we see the development of shanty-town slums in Dublin, like they have in Nairobi/? <br /><br />The short answer is Yes! <br /><br />In 1960, there were no slums in Nairobi, a beautiful city with a sunny, but quite cool, climate, on a fertile plateau in Kenya. Inapproriate government policy and failure to deal with the housing needs of a growing population led to the present position where over half of the three million population of the city live in shanty slums.<br /><br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/N4oC9ARbV8A" width="560"></iframe><br /><br /><br />A brief comparison of the history of Dublin and Nairobi shows that, with poor urban government, it could happen here. Note some important ingredients:<br /><br /><ul><li>Zoning laws that restrict the land available for housing;</li><li>Housing regulations that prevent the building of affordable housing;</li><li>Lack of title of residents to the place they live.</li></ul>Administrative changes in these three areas could quickly resolve the slum issue in Nairobi and other places. Failure to deal realistically with the growing population would lead to slums in Dublin.<br /><br /><ul></ul><strong><span style="font-size: x-large;">Dublin housing history:</span></strong><br /><strong><span style="font-size: x-large;"></span></strong><br /><strong><span style="font-size: large;">18th century Kips:</span></strong><br />The Cromwellian and Williamite wars of the 17th century caused a great influx of homeless people into Dublin. The word "Kip" originally referred to a sleeping place or boarding house. In Dublin of the early 18th century it came to mean a building where homeless people were provided shelter for the night. These often had no beds. For a modest sum, you were provided with a space along a bar. With others, you slept standing while leaning against the bar. The kips were notorious for robbery and assaults and for prostitution. The Penal Times (18th century) were peaceful and prosperous. Dublin mushroomed and quality of life improved. Land and houses were owned by protestants and the bulk of the population were Catholic tenants.<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size: large;">19th century Slums:</span></strong><br />Following the Act of Union in 1800, the population continued to grow, but the economy declined. By the end of the century Dublin had the worst slums in Europe (and the most notorious Red Light District).<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size: large;">1930s, 40s, 50s</span></strong><br />Public housing converted the green fields of Cabra, Drimnagh, Crumlin, Raheny, Coolock, etc., into houses. Tenants were enouraged to buy the houses from the local authorities and these areas became largely owner-occupied.<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size: large;">1960s</span></strong><br />From the 19th century, a large segment of the housing of Dublin was in rented accomodation. In 1914, rent restriction was brought in and this was extended continuously up to the 1960s. As a result, the housing landlords were impoverished and the stock of rented&nbsp;houses deteriorated&nbsp; and declined. A housing crisis emerging in the 1960s was met by the building of the high towers in Ballymun. This provided places for the people to sleep, but failed to provide normal urban living facilities. Unfortunatelfy, what could have been an excellent development was just&nbsp;a huge collection of kips (i.e., sleeping places).<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size: large;">1970s and 80s</span></strong><br />The growing population of Dublin was not being catered for by&nbsp;the city plan; insufficient land was to be zoned for housing. Individual initiatives (Liam Lawlor style) succeeded in re-zoning large tracts of land in West Dublin, against the wishes of the city managers and planners. Without these initiatives, we would have seen a huge homelessness emerging and an immense bubble in property prices in Dublin.<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size: large;">The Noughties</span></strong><br />A redevelopment of Ballymun ran out of steam. Instead of improving the existing tower blocks and adding the needed urban amenities, the blocks were torn down and replaced by much of the same (well, with some improvement). For many young people seeking temporary accomodation in Dublin, bed-sits provided an&nbsp;affordable solution. The regulators, however, seeking to make things better, prohibited any further letting of bedsits. This removed a large stock of affordable housing from the market, one element in the emergence of homelessness. There is now no affordable short-term accomodation in Dublin. The financial crash left thousands of house-purchasers unable to repay their mortgages. NAMA was set up to save the banks and purchased the bank&nbsp;loans at a discount. It could have re-sold&nbsp; to&nbsp; the house-owners at a profit for the state, but still at a discount on the original cost. Instead, it sold at a discount to Vulture Funds, re-introducing 19th century landlordism. House-purchasers, unable to repay their mortgages, were evicted, the main cause of our current homelessness. Meanwhile the&nbsp; population of&nbsp; Dublin is increasing more rapidly than the stock of houses, meaning we are headed for Nairobi style slums.<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Coming soon: shanty living in Dublin</span></strong><br />In Nairobi, with nowhere&nbsp; to live, the homeless people built their shacks from sticks, corrugated iron, cardboard and plastic, along the banks of the rivers, on the flood planes,&nbsp;and in other open places. We can expect Dublin's shanties, if affordable housing is not&nbsp; provided to meet the rising population, along the Dodder, the Grand Canal, the Tolka,&nbsp;Ringsend Park, Bull Island,&nbsp;and any open spaces available. Imagine 100,000 people settling on the lawns of&nbsp;St Stephen's Green. The Board of Works comes along, supported by the police, bulldozes the shacks and drives the homeless people off. Where do they go? Onto Merrion Square, the banks of the Grand Canal and the Dodder: until they are bulldozed out of there.<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size: x-large;">A Brief History of Nairobi</span></strong><br /><strong><span style="font-size: large;">1899</span></strong><br />Nairobi was an uninhabited&nbsp;swamp, served by a network of small rivers, on a fertile plane, with a sunny but cool climate. It was part of the lands of the Maasai, a nomadic people. These did not believe in the ownership of land, but drove their herds of cattle and goats over the plains. "Nairobi" is a Maasai word that means "cool water." A railway was being built from Mombasa (then capital of the territory) to Uganda, and a depot and camp was set up at Nairobi. Around the camp,&nbsp;shacks and bazaars quickly developed.<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size: large;">1900 - 1926</span></strong><br />A Town Committee was set up to organise the place. The area of the town was declared to be a 1.5 mile radius surrounding His Brittanic Majesty's Commissioner's office. A town hall, hotel, banks, trading centres, Catholic Church and school,&nbsp;and other facilities were provided and the town developed very rapidly.<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size: large;">1950</span></strong><br />Nairobi was given the status of a city by Royal Charter, March 1950. (In 1964 Keny became independent and Nairobi's Mayor indigenous. In 2013, the title of Nairobi City Council was changed to Nairobi City County).<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size: large;">1960 to now: growth of slums</span></strong><br />Conflict, tribal clashes, drought, rural depopulation, refugees from wars in neighbouring states and other events brought floods of people into Nairobi. Land was not provided for the new people to make their home. They had to settle illegally on open land. They had no title to this land, but have to pay large rents to speculators who claim to be owners of the land, most of which was, in fact, public open space. Any attempt to build proper buildings is frustrated, because the&nbsp;land grabbers, who claim ownership, often through corruption, move in with eviction orders and&nbsp;bulldozers and demolish whatever buildings the slum-dwellers erect.<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Mukuru</span></strong><br />Visiting Nairobi in 2002, I stayed in a house in the grounds of the Mater Hospital, beside the slum of Mukuru. "Mukuru" is a Swahili word meaning "Dump." The City Council had many years ago declared that the area was unfit for housing, being located beside a dump. This meant it was open space on which homeless people could settle and build their shacks. Now around half a million people live here in that dump.<br /><br />I woke on my first morning in Nairobi to the shock of a large mass of men marching by my window. "What's going on?" I said to my sister, Mary, "Have I arrived in the middle of a revolution?"<br /><br />"No," said Mary, "These men are walking into the city to work."<br /><br />It transpired that 100,000 men walk every day from the slum into the city to work!<br /><br />"If they have jobs," I aked, "why are they living in the slum and not in proper houses."<br /><br />"Because," came the answer, "property is too expensive in Nairobi. People with unskilled work can't afford houses."<br /><br />So: the main reason for the slums is lack of affordable housing. This is caused by failure to zone land for housing to compete with existing housing areas. It is also caused by the failure to allow poor people to own their own plot so that they can build for themselves houses of better quality than the present shacks, if not of a quality to satisfy housing regulations.<br /><br />Lack of land zoned for housing (on the open plains) to compete with existing urban areas means that land and buildings are grossly over-priced.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EeE3oOB03rQ/WLCupsgujWI/AAAAAAAANE8/y-d0s5VzWCMGK8reZxTacjfM4egjF6DvwCLcB/s1600/untitled.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="152" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EeE3oOB03rQ/WLCupsgujWI/AAAAAAAANE8/y-d0s5VzWCMGK8reZxTacjfM4egjF6DvwCLcB/s400/untitled.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Nairobi City</div><br />Proinnsias Ó Cillínhttps://plus.google.com/107863319744542695298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413843590073957520.post-36277394573504910522016-07-07T10:31:00.003-07:002016-07-08T01:16:53.894-07:00The Hungry MonthJuly was called the "hungry month" in the west of Ireland. <br /><br />The hedge-rows were full of blossoms, but there was little on the table.<br /><br />Last year's potatoes were nearly used up and what was left of them were soft and soggy. The new year's potatoes would not be ready until August at the earliest. (Some seaside areas, however,&nbsp;had earlier potatoes).<br /><br />The milk was flowing well, however. The cow and goat were very efficient machines at turning grass and herbs into a wonderful and tasty set of foods: Cream, butter, drinking milk,&nbsp;curds, cheese perhaps,&nbsp;&nbsp;buttermilk, milk-water (whey and lactose solution left over after extracting other foods from the liquid milk).<br /><br />Six million peasants, before the famine, (more than halved in number afterwards) lived almost exclusively on potatoes and milk. There were many ways of making tasty meals out of potatoes: boiled in the skin, baked, roasted in butter or fat, sliced and fried, part-boiled and part fried, boiled and mashed, shredded and fried in butter (boxty), shredded and baked (rostie), and so on. <br /><br />"Boxty" comes from the Irish words "bocht tí," which means "poor person's house." Poor land would not grow wheat, and a poor man could not afford to buy flour. Boxty was made from a mixture of freshly shredded potatoes and cooked potatoes, formed into a cake and slowly fried in butter&nbsp;on the pan. It wasn't bread, but it resembled griddle-bread in appearance and made a tasty meal. Still available and appreciated in the west!<br /><br />A very special potato dish was reserved for the month of July, i.e., Colcannon (also permitted at Hallowe'en, but then with more mature cabbage or kale).<br /><br />Colcannon is distinguished from ordinary mashed potatoes (and more particularly from mashed potatoes carelessly made, with excessive moisture retained or over-mashed) called "Stampy." The soft potatoes are firstly hardened up by soaking in cool water overnight. Then they are boioled in their jackets, peeled and lightly mashed, and left under low heat to dry to the correct moisture level. The thinnings from the onion patch (spring onions) and the outer leaves of the young cabbages are picked, chopped, and lightly cooked. Most importantly, a good quantity of cream off the top of the milk is whisked until it is thick ("whipped cream"). The whipped cream and the greens are gently mixed into the potatoes, to make a delicious meal, served hot to the table. Open&nbsp; a crater in the top of the conical pile of potato on your plate, and into the crater drop a good dollop of butter. Delicious!<br /><br />Pictures taken today by the Royal Canal between Glasnevin and Ashtown: July blossoms.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PkdED7jdHMY/V36LzliVNHI/AAAAAAAAI7w/e15FnkxGIi0donYtWF0yXmlkSCM3em4QwCKgB/s1600/IMG_20160707_171958.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PkdED7jdHMY/V36LzliVNHI/AAAAAAAAI7w/e15FnkxGIi0donYtWF0yXmlkSCM3em4QwCKgB/s400/IMG_20160707_171958.jpg" width="225" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JwjqehpeHAw/V36LzjALEyI/AAAAAAAAI7w/XZiXIwlbSl4Af18KpacqUZVCPnbjN26AACKgB/s1600/IMG_20160707_171111.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JwjqehpeHAw/V36LzjALEyI/AAAAAAAAI7w/XZiXIwlbSl4Af18KpacqUZVCPnbjN26AACKgB/s400/IMG_20160707_171111.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UVV6wp4jSxk/V36LzoU6rQI/AAAAAAAAI7w/GVOO30V7QbgS7zF64QtH7jCZfHZC2iTCgCKgB/s1600/IMG_20160707_165803.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UVV6wp4jSxk/V36LzoU6rQI/AAAAAAAAI7w/GVOO30V7QbgS7zF64QtH7jCZfHZC2iTCgCKgB/s400/IMG_20160707_165803.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yfLVLyitmyc/V36LzlJwYzI/AAAAAAAAI7w/0mhnwV9dpWEqQR0xKxu18dnk3BGLdZxiwCKgB/s1600/IMG_20160707_165640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yfLVLyitmyc/V36LzlJwYzI/AAAAAAAAI7w/0mhnwV9dpWEqQR0xKxu18dnk3BGLdZxiwCKgB/s400/IMG_20160707_165640.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-I7MOykqTpdQ/V36Lzr9wJpI/AAAAAAAAI7w/7wSmOJsOc4wd6nkyl6v9J6nEBFto4baqQCKgB/s1600/IMG_20160707_165622.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-I7MOykqTpdQ/V36Lzr9wJpI/AAAAAAAAI7w/7wSmOJsOc4wd6nkyl6v9J6nEBFto4baqQCKgB/s400/IMG_20160707_165622.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Hv6ClXC4BwE/V36LznBd6yI/AAAAAAAAI7w/CYOsRIp8PN0511JRJehONUaomzdJOXR1wCKgB/s1600/IMG_20160707_165616.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Hv6ClXC4BwE/V36LznBd6yI/AAAAAAAAI7w/CYOsRIp8PN0511JRJehONUaomzdJOXR1wCKgB/s400/IMG_20160707_165616.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FpqNkGty08w/V36LzojLgjI/AAAAAAAAI7w/TFu-_pm-ARYv9AG1WOd2eFQ_wxZCAhq3QCKgB/s1600/IMG_20160707_153344.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FpqNkGty08w/V36LzojLgjI/AAAAAAAAI7w/TFu-_pm-ARYv9AG1WOd2eFQ_wxZCAhq3QCKgB/s400/IMG_20160707_153344.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />Did you ever eat Colcannon, made with the thickened cream?<br />With the greens and scallions mingled like a picture in a dream.<br />Did you ever make a hole on top to hold the melting flake<br />Of the&nbsp;clover-flavoured butter that your mother used to make?<br /><br />(Chorus)<br />Oh you did, I know you did, so did he and so did I.<br />And the more I think about it, sure, the nearer I'm to cry.<br />Oh, weren't them the happy days when troubles we knew not,<br />And your mother made Colcannon in the little skillet pot.<br /><br />Well did you ever take potato cake or boxty to the school,<br />Tucked underneath your oxter with your book, your slate and rule?<br />And when teacher wasn't looking, sure, a fine big bite you'd take,<br />Of the clover-flavoured buttered sweet potato cake.<br /><br />(Chorus)<br /><br />Well did you ever go a-courting as the evening sun went down,<br />And the moon began a-peeping from behind the Hill o' Down?<br />As you wandered down the boreen where the leprechaun was seen,<br />And you whispered loving phrases to your little fair Colleen.<br /><br />(Chorus) <br /><br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FeCUlSPLYEM" width="420"></iframe><br />Proinnsias Ó Cillínhttps://plus.google.com/107863319744542695298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413843590073957520.post-90382203369269217912016-02-10T04:02:00.002-08:002017-02-27T10:19:03.540-08:00Whey Butter, the Cream, Kerry Group and NutritionIn 1970, I came across, in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paddy_%22the_Cope%22_Gallagher" target="_blank">Paddy the Cope Gallagher's</a> shop in Gweedore, a product I had never seen before: Whey Butter!<br /><br />Little Miss Muffet, of&nbsp; course, sat on her tuffet eating her curds and whey. It is a very ancient pastural practice to separate milk into these two parts. First the cream is taken off, from which butter is made. The remainder is rich in protein, of which 80%&nbsp; is casein protein and about 20% is whey protein.&nbsp;Curds are mainly casein, and Whey, the main protein in the watery substance left behind.<br /><br />Now I thought I&nbsp;had&nbsp;discovered a butter made from the watery&nbsp;protein content of the milk! I was mistaken, since whey butter is actually made from a residual fat content of the watery whey obtained by making cheese by adding rennet to full-fat milk. The rennet curdles the milk; the solid part is taken off to form into cheese, and the "whey" is the watery part left behind.<br /><br />I tried out the whey-butter, and found it very satisfactory for spreading on bread. I assumed it was not suitable for cooking (being, as&nbsp;I thought,&nbsp;devoid of fat).<br /><br />I looked in many other shops, not only in&nbsp;Donegal, but in Dublin and other towns, and never found another shop stocking it.<br /><br />If I was interested in this product, then there must be thousands of others. The "health food" sector must be one good outlet! Yet, I had never heard of it.<br /><br />Ireland relied heavily on its exports of Irish Creamery Butter. Curds were often used to make cottage cheese, and Whey was more or less a waste bye-product, except for feeding to pigs. Now I saw it as potentially having significant value. All it required was marketing!<br /><br />I thought the matter interesting enough to mention it at a departmental&nbsp;conference. I was working in the Gaeltacht Department at the time.&nbsp;This department was quite contrarian in its policies, setting up industrial estates, for example, in remote wastelands. (Seamus O Raghallaigh, its senior officer in Donegal, was actually a founder member and editing secretary of the <a href="http://www.rsai-bis.org/" target="_blank">Regional Science Association International</a>, which promulgated the economics of remote industrial estates).<br /><br />The Department took interest and raised the matter with the Dairy Board. A reply was soon received to the effect that "we have a very effective marketing campaign going on under the slogan 'Butter is the Cream,' so we are not in favour at present of promoting whey butter!"<br /><br />Shortly afterwards, a departmental colleague mentioned to me that a group of Kerry farmers were taking interest in the product.&nbsp;By 1972 the North Kerry Farmers Cooperative had&nbsp;set up a joint venture&nbsp;with the Dairy Disposal Company (a state-owned company)&nbsp;and Erie Casein Company&nbsp;(an American company already involved in marketing milk proteins). There was an abundant supply of milk in County Kerry. After separating the milk, the remaining low-fat milk was initially used to extract casein for&nbsp;the manufacture of cheese and plastic, leaving whey as the waste product. Now they were interested in pursuing the potential of whey as a valuable product. In the following years, whey became the basis of muscle-building foods.<br /><br />This North Kerry Cooperative&nbsp;venture evolved into <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerry_Group" target="_blank">Kerry Group,</a> which has an annual revenue of €6 Billion and employs 24,000 people worldwide.&nbsp;While casein products were its inspiration, it never confined itself to that&nbsp;and markets around&nbsp;15,000 products.<br /><br />Meanwhile "Butter is the Cream" became unstuck. There was a sudden turn against consumption of saturated fats by those who guide public health. Everybody put low-fat milk on the table in place of full-fat milk. A flood of poly-unsaturated margarines flooded the market. Irish people stopped having the glass of milk with their lunch. People everywhere switched to low-fat,&nbsp;sugary foods and&nbsp;drinks. "Curds" became virtually the waste product in place of Whey!<br /><br />Result of the flight from fats to sugars: an epidemic of&nbsp;obesity and diabetes. It turns out that natural fats are not the bogey-man after all, but sugars.<br /><br />Now our health advisers are telling us that full-fat milk and butter are good for us after all!<br /><br />Of coursse, Kerry Group kept up to date with the changes in perception and in October 2015 launched the <a href="http://www.kerryhealthandnutritioninstitute.com/" target="_blank">Kerry Health and Nutrition Institute</a>, "your trusted destination for health, nutrition &amp;&nbsp; general wellness science and policies."<br /><br />Proinnsias Ó Cillínhttps://plus.google.com/107863319744542695298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413843590073957520.post-81896708845031515042016-02-08T03:39:00.001-08:002016-02-09T02:42:37.013-08:00Krunchie's Concepts Two spectres in the&nbsp;maths world that have annoyed my brain over the years are Georg Cantor's alleged proof of the trans-finite (numbers bigger than infinity) and Alan Turing's non-computable numbers. Over the last few months I have given a lot of time to writing down my refutation of these absurd, but widely acclaimed, propositions.<br /><br />Cantor is the founder of Set Theory and Turing one of the two fathers of computer science.<br /><br />Last week, I posted my script to a maths journal, clearing the puzzle out of my mind. So, other puzzles return lest my brain be idle.<br /><br />Over the last two nights I have found myself dreaming again of modes of transport. In Saturday's dream, I "drove" a magic carpet through Dublin's traffic. On Sunday night, I found myself struggling, on foot,&nbsp;through a great maze of tram tracks, and dodging trams.<br /><br />Both are hopeless competitors of my "<a href="http://krunchiesinventions.blogspot.ie/p/future-transport-krunchies-cab.html" target="_blank">Krunchie's Cab</a>" transport system. <br /><br /><a href="http://krunchiekilleen.blogspot.ie/p/krunchies-concepts.html" target="_blank">Continue ...</a><br /><br /><br /> Proinnsias Ó Cillínhttps://plus.google.com/107863319744542695298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413843590073957520.post-35776696772618085632015-12-29T13:00:00.000-08:002016-02-09T03:22:31.179-08:00History of Clareville and Claremont in GlasnevinClareville Centre, Glasnevin,&nbsp;won the Irish Pride of Place competition in 2015 in the <em>Age-friendly Community Initiative</em> category. But where does the name "Clareville" come from in Glasnevin?<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size: x-large;">Clare Villa</span></strong><br />When Glasnevin Cemetery opened in 1832, the manager of the cemetery was provided with a residence on land owned by the&nbsp;Cemetery Trust across the road from the burial ground. The manager, from County Clare, called the house "Clare Villa."&nbsp; The housename was taken by Dublin Corporation officials to be a place-name (well, it was printed on the Ordnance Survey Map) and applied it to the housing development as "Clareville."<br /><br />Tony Gregory TD thought a better idea would be to extend the fairly new name of the adjoining &nbsp;"Claremont" estate&nbsp;to the new <em>Clareville</em> development and got permission to canvass for this change of name. The new residents were divided: Clareville Grove and Clareville Court&nbsp;retained those names, but Clareville Lawns succumbed to Tony's plea and voted to change the name to "Claremont Lawns." This explains some of the mixup of names in the locality, and I will proceed to clarify other mixups later in this blog.<br /><br /><em>Clare Villa</em>, the house from which Dublin&nbsp;Corporation derived the name <em>Clareville</em>,&nbsp;was situated on the lands of <em>Violet Hill Great</em>.The lands of Violet Hill Great and, next to them, Violet Hill Little, stretched from here northwards to the river Tolka.<br /><br />The lands on which the houses of Clareville Grove, Claremont Lawns and Clareville Court are built were known as <em>Slutsend </em>or <em>Westfarm.</em><br /><br />The houses of Claremont Court, Claremont Crescent and Claremont Grove, to the north and west of Clareville Estate, (and which predate Clareville Estate) were built partly on the lands of <em>Slutsend (Westfarm)</em> and partly on the lands of V<em>iolet Hill</em>.<br /><br /><a href="http://krunchiesireland.blogspot.ie/p/history-of-clareville-and-claremont-in.html" target="_blank">Continue ...</a> <br /><br /><br />Proinnsias Ó Cillínhttps://plus.google.com/107863319744542695298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413843590073957520.post-52501472590442774192015-12-28T13:03:00.000-08:002015-12-29T04:52:47.502-08:00Review 2015 ResolutionsTime to review my 2015 Resolutions and reflect on future plans. Too much was covered in the 2015 Resolutions: some could only be achieved at the expense of others, given my declining energy as I advance in age. I list last year's resolutions below and comment on how and to what extent I achieved each.<br /><br />The actual high-lights of the year had little contribution from myself. They were my sister, <a href="http://srmaryandpope.blogspot.ie/" target="_blank">Sr Mary Killeen's, shocking address to the Pope</a> when he visited Kenya and <a href="http://www.ionaroadparish.ie/parish-groups/24" target="_blank">Clareville Daycare Centre</a> (managed by my wife, Teresa) winning the <a href="http://prideofplace.ie/portfolio-item/age-friendly-community-initiative-clareville-centre-dublin-city/" target="_blank">Irish Pride of Place</a> competition in the "Age-friendy community initiative," category.<br /><br />I do conribute a&nbsp;little to the Clareville activities. I play tin-whistle there almost&nbsp;on a weekly basis, accompanied by guitar, and am with the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvhBn4z9SBI" target="_blank"><em>Invincibles </em>band</a> when they play. Visiting our oldest resident, temporarily hospitalised, on Christmas Eve, I was pleased to hear him say how much he enjoys our band- playing the old tunes. As he sits beside his bed in the hospital, he tells me he reminisces about times gone by and remembers the music in the dance halls of his youth: the jigs and reels, the hopping around and the occasional spirited shout. From his area of the country comes Brendan Shine and Foster and Allen, and I am pleased to hear the <em>Invincibles</em> included in the same breath. He recalls that there were two families of Shine in his parish, and it was <em>Boher </em>Shine who built and played in the local dance hall.<br /><br />My best moment of joy was when the congregation in the little Church of the Resurrection in Glasnevin Cemetery started to clap along with our <em>Angels We Have Heard On High</em> medley.<br /><br />Of course, these highlights come from the latter end of the year. Had I been writing this blog earlier in the year, I would have remembered different highlights and moments of joy.<br /><br />Last year's resolutions listed and commented:<br /><br /><ol><li><a href="http://krunchieworld.blogspot.ie/p/gozo-walks.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2288bb;">Gozo Coastal Walk</span></a>: <span style="color: red;">done in April, when the yellow and crimson wild flowers were at their best.</span></li><li>Get out for a walk, long or short, every day, rain or shine: <span style="color: red;">done, more or less. Actually, there are fewer rainiy days in Glasnevin, Dublin, than one might expect, but, wearing good rain-gear these are as enjoyable as the fine days</span>.</li><li>Prepare for market signed prints of 3 or 4 series of my <a href="http://krunchiesart.blogspot.ie/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2288bb;">paintings</span></a>, i.e., (1) Fireside Scenes, (2) Coloured Pencil sketches, (3) Oil-style paintings, (4) Other: <span style="color: red;">Not done; if you are out and about, you are not spending time on indoor chores.</span></li><li>Add to <em><a href="http://krunchiesinventions.blogspot.ie/p/krunchies-manifesto.html" target="_blank">Krunchie's Manifesto</a> </em>items on <em>People Registration</em> and <em>Abolition of Criminal Law: </em><span style="color: red;">done, but <em>People Registration</em>&nbsp; became <em>Identifiation</em></span>.</li><li>Extend my <em><a href="http://sharespunt.blogspot.ie/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2288bb;">Shares Watch</span></a></em> to include watching for coming spikes: <span style="color: red;">Some spikes were caught, but I concentrated more on the vagaries of EUR/USD.</span></li><li>Add more items to <em><a href="http://krunchieworld.blogspot.ie/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2288bb;">Krunchie's World</span></a></em> from my photo collections, together with account of how places affected my thinking;<span style="color: red;"> Well, my Gozo walk was added, without comment, but generally speaking I was too lazy to put in the time and effort.</span></li><li>Progress my projects on <a href="http://krunchiesinventions.blogspot.ie/p/future-transport-krunchies-cab.html" target="_blank"><em><span style="color: #2288bb;">Krunchie's Cab</span></em></a><em>, <a href="http://krunchiesinventions.blogspot.ie/p/single-button-keyboard.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2288bb;">Single Button Keyboard</span></a> </em>and <em><a href="http://krunchiesinventions.blogspot.ie/p/simplified-land-titling.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2288bb;">Simplified Land Titling</span></a>:<span style="color: red;">Not much done about that. I recommenced my perusal of Turing's theorem that there are non-computable numbers (which I dispute) but doubt that I can acquire the technical competence in Math to publish my refutal.</span></em></li><li>Record some of my tunes: <span style="color: red;">Not done. A CD is in preparation of the Clareville Centre choir, with assistance from the Invincibles and contributions from the local&nbsp; community on "The Graves of Glasnevin" due to be recorded before the end of January and put on sale by Easter 2016 (proceeds in aid of Clareville Day-care&nbsp;Centre). Perhaps, after that I will have&nbsp; time to prepare my own tunes!</span></li><li>Reduce consumption of <a href="http://krunchieverse.blogspot.ie/2014/11/do-experts-not-imbibe.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2288bb;">wine</span></a> and monitor my collesterol level: <span style="color: red;">This is a difficult one. Too much wine makes me sluggish, but I love it. It was once thought that cholesterol levels, in so far as they have external&nbsp; cause, are the result of a high fat diet, but it is now realised that the main culprits are sugar and wheat content. Wine certainly boosts the sugar levels and so pushes the figures up. I enjoy protein foods and vegetables, but also like to dine out every day (gets me walking) and restaurants, regretably, add gratuitous sugar content to all dishes. So, I have succumbed to taking a little daily dose of statin. Walking is another important antidote.</span></li><li>Reflect on and explain <a href="http://secondsixtyfive.blogspot.ie/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2288bb;"><em>The Second Sixty-five</em></span></a><em>:</em><span style="color: red;"><em> </em>This awaits my attention. One aspect that needs comment is the need for us, as we advance in years, to remain active. My 102 year old neighbour has always made a point of getting out every day, and so do I. (Until very recently, as well as attending the Day-care Centre, he has been walking to the pub and the bookies every day, collecting his pension from the neighbouring village, where he used to live, and shopping and cooking for himself at weekends, an epitome of the motto "Be Active; Be Alive").</span></li><li>Continue fortnightly tin-whistle/ poetry&nbsp;performance; perhaps more at new&nbsp; venues: <span style="color: red;">Done, and in progress.</span></li><li>Take a step every day towards an objective from the above list: <span style="color: red;">Still a good idea, but too easily resolved by going for a walk. However, as years pass, the walk is a high priority.</span></li></ol>Proinnsias Ó Cillínhttps://plus.google.com/107863319744542695298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413843590073957520.post-74892909376381164832015-12-18T02:11:00.001-08:002015-12-18T02:16:52.732-08:00What have they done to Buy to Let?I read in Davy's early morning briefing today&nbsp;that Buy-to-let lending fell by 8.1% the first three quarters of 2015.<br /><br />Meanwhile, the number of homeless in Dublin almost&nbsp;doubled during the year.<br /><br />One serious factor in the decline in availability of rented accommodation is the ban on bed-sits, which became effective in February 2013,<br /><br />The purpose of the ban was to improve living conditions. The effect of the ban was to remove the most affordable rented accommodation from the market, to reduce the number of units available for letting, to put a brake on rent-to-buy, and to increase homelessness.<br /><br />The taxpayer had to pay for emergency accommodation instead.<br /><br />In addition, many citizens who had invested in "a second property" instead of putting money into a pension fund have effectively lost their pension pot.Proinnsias Ó Cillínhttps://plus.google.com/107863319744542695298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413843590073957520.post-70257936648776885492015-10-15T10:10:00.000-07:002015-10-15T10:11:36.957-07:00Oil and Euro rising to Ireland's possible detrimentPresent booming economic&nbsp;growth in Ireland owes something to the current low price of both the Euro and Energy. Both of these seem to have hit bottom and to have commenced rising again. No doubt this upward trend will continue. By the end of 2016, expect to see the price of crude oil back at $100 per barrel, and the Euro back at $1.30.<br /><br />Since these price movements will have a restraining effect, the recent budget was not too expansionary, but the country will have to keep an eye on costs.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.tradingview.com/x/8pqKYP5k/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="185" src="https://www.tradingview.com/x/8pqKYP5k/" width="400" /></a></div><br />The chart shows the Euro against the US Dollar (blue line) and the OIL ETF (pink lne). It can be seen that EUR/USD has been trending upwards since March, and that oil has now started to trend upwards also.Proinnsias Ó Cillínhttps://plus.google.com/107863319744542695298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413843590073957520.post-64087763152859108122015-10-06T04:12:00.002-07:002015-10-06T04:12:44.139-07:00Flat Income Tax - Fair Play to RenuaFair Play to Renua for promising Flat Income Tax. As you know, it&nbsp;was already in my <a href="http://krunchiesinventions.blogspot.ie/p/krunchies-manifesto.html" target="_blank">Manifesto</a>.&nbsp;It will be a hard sell, but is a good policy.Proinnsias Ó Cillínhttps://plus.google.com/107863319744542695298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413843590073957520.post-69578384531832358402015-04-11T14:56:00.002-07:002015-04-11T15:02:09.446-07:00Buy Oil NowWe had a tongue-twister riddle, when I was young, that went like this: "If a gumboil could boil oil, how much oil would a gumboil boil, if a gumboil could boil oil?"<br /><br />The riddle would make sense if we changed "gumboil" to "gum-buyer." Then the riddle would say: "If a gum-buyer could buy oil, how much oil would the gum-buyer buy?"<br /><br />In our present world, China is the gum-buyer. She has a huge surplus of cash, having had trade surpluses for many years. She has, in recent years, been busily buying up land, mines and minerals in Africa, Australia and other places. The rising value of the US Dollar has increased&nbsp;her wealth. <br /><br />At the present moment in time, there is a surplus of oil in the world and oil prices are very low.&nbsp;In previous times, when this happened, Saudi Arabia cut back on oil production, to press the oil-price upwards. At present, however, the Saudis have decided to keep pumping the oil, in order to put&nbsp;high-cost producers, including the American shale-oil producers, out of business. <br /><br />If I were the gum-buyer at this point in time, I would use my reserves of US Dollars to buy oil, before the Dollar falls and the oil rises. Pretty obvious, really. The secondary benefit would be&nbsp;in trade from shoring up its trading partner, the USA.<br /><br />There would be two ways&nbsp;of buying the oil. The first is to buy&nbsp;current oil and put it into storage. The second would be to buy forward for future delivery - but perhaps the second would&nbsp;not be on the table for&nbsp;our Chinese.<br /><br />I wonder if Ireland has any way of storing significant quantities of oil, now while the price is right!Proinnsias Ó Cillínhttps://plus.google.com/107863319744542695298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413843590073957520.post-37024457345976868532015-03-28T06:28:00.000-07:002017-02-27T10:07:51.980-08:00Ireland at the Centre of the Earth with TTIPWhen I was 12, on my first year in secondary school, faced with an exam question on the geographic location of Ireland, I was struck with a flash of inspiration, and I wrote: <br /><br />"Ireland is at the centre of the earth." <br /><br />Mr Mackey gave me zero marks for this reply, and wrote in the margin: " I don't know what you were thinking." <br /><br />This may be because he neglected to read the rest of my answer, which was somewhat&nbsp;as follows: "The world is shaped like a ball. You can choose any place you like as the centre of (the surface of) a ball. The current attitude that Ireland is a peripheral place off the west coast of (a central) Europe underlies our poor economic performance. If we, instead, were to regard Ireland as centrally located between Europe and the Americas, we could become a prosperous hub of world trade." <br /><br />This was 1955. Ireland had been in an economic depression for 30 years and the prospect for most of my schoolmates was the emigrant ship. The railways were being closed, people were just locking their homes and leaving. <br /><br />An idea like mine is taken from the ether - the sphere of consciousness that surrounds the earth. Fortunately for Ireland, another person was grasping the same idea from the ether: T K Whitaker was an up-and-coming economist in the Department of Finance. He put forward the view that Ireland should forsake its protectionist economic policies and open up to trade. The result was our First Programme for Economic Expansion (1957)&nbsp;which brought the first period of growth for forty years. The changed attitude lead ultimately to the Celtic Tiger. <br /><br />Now we are looking forward to the prospect of a trade agreement between Europe and USA (the "Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership" under negotiation)&nbsp;which will enable Ireland to be truly a hub of trade between the two continents, fulfilling the vision of St Columkille (of the 6th century, supposedly surviving in a manuscript of the 11th century, translated and printed in USA in the mid 19th century) that: <br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">"Ireland will be prosperous again. No other country on the face of the earth will be more prosperous than she." </blockquote><br />In Columkille's day, Ireland was&nbsp;"a land of Saints and Scholars" and a&nbsp;prosperous hub of learning and trade serving the whole of Europe. He predicted the coming of the Vikings, and then the conquest by a&nbsp; foreign power that would last 700 years, before liberation and the return of prosperity. There was no sign of prosperity in the 1950s, and not until we made ourselves again&nbsp;a centre of trade and learning.<br /><br /><strong>Reggio, Calabria, Italy, reminds me of Dublin in the 1950s</strong><br />Last November, I visited Reggio in the south of Italy. It reminded me of Ireland in the fifties, and I found that they held onto the same regressive attitude: that they were a peripheral, forgotten region (of Italy). Despite having a sea-front promenade identified as "the most beautiful kilometre in Italy," and many other potential attractions, the official website proclaimed it as a place to visit only on your way to someplace else (e.g., Sicily). <br /><br />Like Ireland, Calabria has a long history of emigration, and has a diaspora in many of the same countries as we. We found, among people with whom we chatted,&nbsp;a similar pattern of relatives in America and Australia as our own.<br /><br />There is some hope for the future of Reggio. In the nineties, they had a period of development called "The Reggio Spring," under a charismatic Mayor, (Italo Falcomata) when the seafront promenade was magnificently upgraded and many improvements wrought. <br /><br />However, the reforms were only half-baked, neglecting to take on the&nbsp;random parking and haphazard building, and running up debt. For example, an&nbsp; extensive car-park was built behind the main train station, which should have allowed the piazza in front of the station to revert to being a glamorous piazza. The official car-park remains empty and the piazza clogged with cars.<br /><br />Then the recession came; and now the whole country is sinking under the weight of government&nbsp;debt and a deluge of&nbsp;refugees from Syria and Africa. <br /><br />But, there is an incipient spirit of revival, a&nbsp;movement for community development and a new intelligentsia emerging from its new universities. The grip of the Mafia and the church needs to be loosened and individual enterprise allowed to prosper. I heard of people who in previous years tried to make a difference who were asked to leave and then disappeared never to be seen again.<br /><br />Pope Francis, the last pope according to St Malachy, who came not from the centre of the earth but the end of the earth, did not baulk at visiting Calabria - a few months before me - and denouncing not only the Mafia but the church's wealth machine.<br /><br />While I was there, the election of&nbsp;a new Mayor took place, the office having been suspended for several years&nbsp;due to financial irregularities and overspending.&nbsp;There were around 40 candidates, but only 4 or 5 real contenders. The most eye-catching poster proclaimed "Bastad Immigranti," (which means "Stop Immigrants"). Others cribbed about bin-charges and&nbsp; other aspects of&nbsp;austerity, but I favoured the candidate whose poster simply said "Falcomata for Reggio." After all, if you want to protest about austerity measures, you can take part in a street protest or write a letter to the papers. What has that to do with being Mayor of a city, a job that requires you to do your best to run the city? Being against immigrants or repressive taxes shows no intention whatsoever to focus on good government.<br /><br />My chosen&nbsp; candidate,&nbsp;Giuseppe Falcomata, was successful. The new mayor is a son of the mayor who brought about the Reggio Spring. <br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tds1Vg0bSAU/VRb0yNUKVPI/AAAAAAAADtg/qYBvYzH4lEo/s1600/ReggioCarsApts.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tds1Vg0bSAU/VRb0yNUKVPI/AAAAAAAADtg/qYBvYzH4lEo/s1600/ReggioCarsApts.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />Random parking of cars and haphazard development indicate that the reforms of the Reggio Spring did not go far enough. Instead of parking in the new, empty,&nbsp;car parks behind the main train station, for example, parked&nbsp;cars continue to clog the roads in front of the station. The randomness of apartment building indicates either an incompetent or a corrupt planning regime. Compare this to Estapona in Spain, also to be found in&nbsp;<a href="http://krunchieworld.blogspot.ie/" target="_blank">Krunchie's World</a>, where local government is excellent and everything in proper order.<br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-y6Z0ltaZCLM/VRb121jydYI/AAAAAAAADto/XRXbfRXcr70/s1600/Falcomata.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="183" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-y6Z0ltaZCLM/VRb121jydYI/AAAAAAAADto/XRXbfRXcr70/s1600/Falcomata.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />Supporters outside Falcomata's constituency office waiting for the results of the Mayoral election&nbsp;(which were delayed because of a re-count). Note: all men; women tend not to&nbsp;involve themselves visibly in politics or business.<br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yru5rtgp5NY/VRb2agsjJMI/AAAAAAAADtw/5X7DfCJ1tGs/s1600/Krunchie%26Falcomata.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="253" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yru5rtgp5NY/VRb2agsjJMI/AAAAAAAADtw/5X7DfCJ1tGs/s1600/Krunchie%26Falcomata.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />Krunchie with Niamh and Teresa outside Falcomata's constituency office.<br /><br />I just mention Reggio as an area that reminds me of the Ireland in which I was brought up, where the feelings of peripherallity and backwardness held us back, until we changed our attitude and realised we could be the centre of the earth. <br /><br />Proinnsias Ó Cillínhttps://plus.google.com/107863319744542695298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413843590073957520.post-54549542650993394462015-01-26T12:58:00.001-08:002015-01-26T13:01:46.685-08:00Forget about Fracking - now it's Octopus multi-well drillingThe people of Leitrim can forget their concerns over Fracking. The new emerging technology is the <a href="http://shalestuff.com/controversy-2/multi-well-pad-drilling-octpus/article08580" target="_blank">Octopus multi-well drilling pad</a>. One drilling pad on 7 acres of land can extract the oil from the surrounding 2,000 acres.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.angelpub.com/2013/04/18024/ogt-octopus-image.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="362" src="https://images.angelpub.com/2013/04/18024/ogt-octopus-image.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Octopus drilling schema</div>Proinnsias Ó Cillínhttps://plus.google.com/107863319744542695298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413843590073957520.post-21839729116161672812015-01-09T01:56:00.003-08:002015-01-09T07:04:18.083-08:00Abolish Criminal LawThere was no Criminal Law (or jails) in Ireland before the arrival of the Norman invaders. Instead, (as in other ancient pre-piscean systems), the emphasis was on compensating victims of wrong.<br /><br />I suggest that, now as we leave the Piscean Age and enter the Age of Aquarius, we return to this focus.<br /><br />In Criminal Law, the focus is on the perpetrator. In pre-piscean systems, the focus is on the victim.<br /><br />The Criminal Law identifies specific actions, considered to be reprehensible, as offences, and sets out to punish people who take those actions. It requires two elements to be proven: (1) a criminal act and (2) a criminal intent.<br /><br />Pre-piscean systems, instead, ask "was the complainant harmed by a wrongful act of the accused?" If the answer is "yes," then the victim is to be compensated. Criminal intent does come into it, but is not the primary question. If the wrongful act was intended to harm the victim, rather than an unfortunate result of careless behaviour, then the court could award increased compensation over and beyond the value of the actual harm suffered.<br /><br />O, the ancient Irish Law did have categories and detailed descriptions of wrongful acts and many rules for calculating the appropriate compensation. But it was not confined, as is the Criminal Law, to specific defined criminal actions, but was always open to consider new forms of wrongful acts. Crimes were not defined by parliament, but wrongful acts were "discovered" by judges who applied the fundamental notions of right and wrong (often embodied in cryptic maxims composed by learned poets) found universally in human consciousness.<br /><br />If an offender was unable to pay the compensation out of his/ her own resources, his family or close relations could pay it for him (and usually expect to be refunded by the offender). If his people failed to come up with the cash, the offender was bound to the victim, i.e., became his bonded servant. If the victim did not keep slaves himself, he could then sell the offender to a slave-master. A bonded servant could be bought out of slavery by somebody paying the compensation on his behalf.<br /><br />The ancient world did not have the notion of paid employment. There were free-holders, free tenants, bonded tenants, professionals,&nbsp;tradesmen,&nbsp;and bonded servants. The modern equivalent of the ancient remedy&nbsp;would be a levy on the earnings of the offender or prisons which engage prisoners in wealth-creating employment.<br /><br />There are two very readable, informative and short, books on the ancient Irish ("Brehon") system:<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0901282952/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1634&amp;creative=6738&amp;creativeASIN=0901282952&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=kilarothewor-21&amp;linkId=5HW7CLQI3OXALHRM"><span style="color: #2288bb;">A Guide to Early Irish Law</span></a><span style="color: #2288bb;"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-uk.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=kilarothewor-21&amp;l=as2&amp;o=2&amp;a=0901282952" height="1" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></span><br /><span style="color: #2288bb;"><br /></span><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1908689218/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1634&amp;creative=6738&amp;creativeASIN=1908689218&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=kilarothewor-21&amp;linkId=JTLQ6GNQSOX3QCUP"><span style="color: #2288bb;">The Lost Laws of Ireland</span></a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-uk.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=kilarothewor-21&amp;l=as2&amp;o=2&amp;a=1908689218" height="1" style="border: currentColor !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br /><br /><br />This post has been added to <em><a href="http://krunchiesinventions.blogspot.ie/p/krunchies-manifesto.html" target="_blank">Krunchie's Manifesto</a>.</em>Proinnsias Ó Cillínhttps://plus.google.com/107863319744542695298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413843590073957520.post-10958963389177326382015-01-07T01:33:00.003-08:002015-01-07T04:25:40.335-08:00New Year Resolutions 2015<ol><li>Book air tickets for a <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00G7TZK8K/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1634&amp;creative=6738&amp;creativeASIN=B00G7TZK8K&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=kilarothewor-21&amp;linkId=36Z4LY4FSRREP222">Gozo Coastal Walk</a>.</li><li>Get out for a walk, long or short, every day, rain or shine.</li><li>Prepare for market signed prints of 3 or 4 series of my <a href="http://krunchiesart.blogspot.ie/" target="_blank">paintings</a>, i.e., (1) Fireside Scenes, (2) Coloured Pencil sketches, (3) Oil-style paintings, (4) Other.</li><li>Add to <em>Krunchie's Manifesto </em>items on <em>People Registration</em> and <em>Abolition of Criminal Law</em>.</li><li>Extend my <em><a href="http://sharespunt.blogspot.ie/" target="_blank">Shares Watch</a></em> to include watching for coming spikes.</li><li>Add more items to <em><a href="http://krunchieworld.blogspot.ie/" target="_blank">Krunchie's World</a></em> from my photo collections, together with account of how places affected my thinking.</li><li>Progress my projects on <a href="http://krunchiesinventions.blogspot.ie/p/future-transport-krunchies-cab.html" target="_blank"><em>Krunchie's Cab</em></a><em>, <a href="http://krunchiesinventions.blogspot.ie/p/single-button-keyboard.html" target="_blank">Single Button Keyboard</a> </em>and <em><a href="http://krunchiesinventions.blogspot.ie/p/simplified-land-titling.html" target="_blank">Simplified Land Titling</a></em>.</li><li>Record some of my tunes.</li><li>Reduce consumption of <a href="http://krunchieverse.blogspot.ie/2014/11/do-experts-not-imbibe.html" target="_blank">wine</a> and monitor my collesterol level.</li><li>Reflect on and explain <em><a href="http://krunchieverse.blogspot.ie/" target="_blank">The Second Sixty-five</a></em></li><li>Continue fortnightly tin-whistle/ poetry&nbsp;performance; perhaps more at new&nbsp; venues.</li><li>Take a step every day towards an objective from the above list.</li></ol><br /><ol></ol><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/hvhBn4z9SBI?rel=0" width="560"></iframe><br /><br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/NBztcyHhZOg?list=UUjDu0gQV8LX-DJQj0j4_AJw" width="560"></iframe><br />Proinnsias Ó Cillínhttps://plus.google.com/107863319744542695298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413843590073957520.post-6965595058175153412014-12-31T10:20:00.000-08:002015-01-09T01:58:26.855-08:00Krunchie's Manifesto<h2>Apologia</h2><br />No, I am not running for election. These are my suggestions for future world governance.<br /><br /><a href="http://krunchiesinventions.blogspot.ie/p/krunchies-manifesto.html" target="_blank">Continue</a><br /><br /><h2></h2>Proinnsias Ó Cillínhttps://plus.google.com/107863319744542695298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413843590073957520.post-16613821347368571372014-10-16T03:29:00.002-07:002017-02-27T09:49:57.158-08:00Causing Bubbles and Crashes<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.tradingview.com/i/MojxKWcE/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="283" src="https://www.tradingview.com/i/MojxKWcE/" width="400" /></a></div><br />Yesterday's 3% or so drop in many indexes across the world made News Reports wake up to the fact that the markets are falling. <br /><br />The Reports blame the slump on the Ebola virus and unsatisfacory reports on global economic growth. Alas, they are misinformed. These items in the news may have been an extra sitmulus, but the correction that is already under way. Zero interest and Quantitive Easing pressed prices to their present unsustainable levels, from which they must fall irrespective of economic performance.<br /><br />However, if the economic report continue bad, the bottom of the correction may be lower than we would otherwise expect. Well-performing economies would arrest the correction at around 1300, whereas economic bad news could do as it did in 2007-8 and send the price crashing through the long-term support line, wiping more than 50% off prices at the apex.<br /><br />The bubble in share prices reminds me of the bubble in Irish house prices leading up to the banking crisis in 2010. Two decades previously, government tried to stimulate a slack housing market by tax incentives. The incentives worked well, but were not discontinued when the housing market recovered, but continued in place, with the effect of over-stimulation and causing the housing bubble. The present high price of stocks and shares is a bubble: it is the result of Policies brought in by America in December 2008 (QUANTITIVE EASING and ZERO INTEREST RATE POLICY). Intended to rescue the economy, it rescued the Stock Markets. From the point of view of the Stock Markets, it would have been better if the stimulus had been removed as soon as the indexes moved above the long-term Support Line. Instead it was continued in place to cause the bubble.<br /><br />See my previous post <br />&nbsp;<a href="http://www.sharespunt.blogspot.ie/2014/10/markets-to-bounce-or-fall.html">Market to Bounce or Fall</a>&nbsp; for further discussion.Proinnsias Ó Cillínhttps://plus.google.com/107863319744542695298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413843590073957520.post-9468677111523780912014-09-17T02:41:00.002-07:002014-09-27T03:14:03.761-07:00My Ulster Constitution tune12 September 2014, I dreamt I was, with my brother, in a pub talking to the Young Owner.<br /><br />Dreams have a way of communicating with our conscious mind by means of metaphors, puns and symbols.&nbsp;This "Young Owner" was a powerful symbol. Symbols say an awful lot in a single image.<br /><br />In the course of the dream I tried to compose "The Ulster Constitution" tune to play on my tin whistle ...<br /><br /><a href="http://krunchiekilleen.blogspot.ie/p/the-ulster-constitution-tune-dream.html" target="_blank">Continue</a><br /><br /><h3></h3>Proinnsias Ó Cillínhttps://plus.google.com/107863319744542695298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413843590073957520.post-55692303366521656442014-05-29T03:19:00.002-07:002014-05-29T03:22:58.076-07:00Electronic VotingA whole week later, our ridiculous and expensive circus of vote-counting comes to an end.<br /><br />This is a marvellous example of an area where significant savings can be achieved - simply by bringing back the electronic voting machines.<br /><br /><a href="http://krunchiekilleen.blogspot.ie/p/electronic-voting.html" target="_blank">Continue</a><br /><br />Proinnsias Ó Cillínhttps://plus.google.com/107863319744542695298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413843590073957520.post-71658758119378281072014-05-29T02:37:00.001-07:002014-05-29T02:45:03.551-07:00Urban BiomassRecent years have seen the launching of Biomass-burning stations in the West of Ireland. These provide employment, offer an outlet for farm produce,&nbsp;utilise renewable sources of energy, reduce the country's carbon emissions and save on imports. Why not also exploit our Urban Biomass resources?<br /><br /><a href="http://krunchiekilleen.blogspot.ie/p/urban-biomass.html" target="_blank">Continue</a>Proinnsias Ó Cillínhttps://plus.google.com/107863319744542695298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413843590073957520.post-36003055180120826932014-05-22T13:52:00.000-07:002014-05-22T13:52:02.418-07:00Election time - what's the job?Tomorrow I will vote for persons who:<br /><ul><li>At local level, will seem to be able for the endless meetings and get a grip on how things are actually achieved (spoofing or Complaining really don't solve all those continual nitty gritty problems)</li><li>At European level, will have the wit and application to do the job, which entails reading detailed legislative proposals concerning environmental standards, consumer protection, trade, and employment law (but not about health, education, housing, law &amp; order or defence); as well as being part of international delegations and receiving outside delegations, confabbing with groups and alignments within the parliament, and meaningfully relating back to me, and their other constituents, I mean giving an account of how they rolled up their sleeves and achieved meaningful results.</li></ul>The work of parliament and council is not glamorous; it is continuous and detailed. As to the headline policies, my mates in the pub account for these aspects satisfactorily. It is the other guys we need on the&nbsp; council and in the European Parliament.Proinnsias Ó Cillínhttps://plus.google.com/107863319744542695298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413843590073957520.post-1303589608323176482014-05-20T03:52:00.001-07:002014-05-20T04:08:17.634-07:00Community ActionElection time is replete with memories for me, for every election marked a period of hyper-activity when I was younger and&nbsp;involved in community action. It was a time when you confronted candidates on behalf of your community and focussed their attention on matters requiring action.<br /><br />To get things done, two essential steps are necessary: (1) Make a List, and (2) Take the first step.<br /><br />Now, I can sit back and luxuriate in reflection on things past. There may be something to be learned by the present generation of potential community leaders, so I have assembled some thoughts here.<br /><br /><a href="http://krunchiekilleen.blogspot.ie/p/community-action.html" target="_blank">Continue</a>.Proinnsias Ó Cillínhttps://plus.google.com/107863319744542695298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413843590073957520.post-49241601841295098762014-05-19T09:33:00.002-07:002014-05-19T09:52:03.912-07:00Monkeys and Pigs<br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 6pt 0cm 0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 15.6pt; mso-outline-level: 2;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 15pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: EN-IE;">They said that, if you paid peanuts, you would get monkeys.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 22.45pt; margin: 6pt 0cm 22.45pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 15pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: EN-IE;">So, they gave large increases and bonuses to those at the top.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 22.45pt; margin: 6pt 0cm 22.45pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 15pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: EN-IE;">As a result, they got greedy pigs, who lined their own pockets and messed up the economy.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 22.45pt; margin: 6pt 0cm 22.45pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 15pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: EN-IE;">Thus, they repeated an age-old lesson: Monkeys are always better governors than Greedy Pigs. Monkeys tend to serve the public good, whereas Greedy Pigs tend to serve themselves.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 22.45pt; margin: 6pt 0cm 22.45pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: &quot;Georgia&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 15pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: EN-IE;"><o:p><a href="http://krunchiekilleen.blogspot.ie/p/monkeys-and-pigs.html" target="_blank">Continue</a></o:p></span></div>Proinnsias Ó Cillínhttps://plus.google.com/107863319744542695298noreply@blogger.com0